Melbourne lifts clearance rate to 59.1 per cent as volumes stay thin

Melbourne's auction clearance rate rose to a preliminary 59.1 per cent in the week ending 8 November, its highest result in eight weeks, lifting the combined capital cities to 51.5 per cent even as auction numbers stayed more than 40 per cent below last year, according to weekly figures Cotality released on 9 November.

The combined capitals result was up 4.3 percentage points from 47.2 per cent the week before. That was only marginally above the spring-to-date average of 51.1 per cent and still below the winter average of 52.3 per cent, so one stronger week does not yet amount to a turn in selling conditions.

Cotality tracked 1,734 capital city auctions over the week, 1.2 per cent more than the week before but 43.5 per cent fewer than the same week in 2025. Auction activity has now run more than 40 per cent below year-ago levels in three of the past four weeks.

Melbourne's thinner auction market

Melbourne hosted 612 auctions, an 18.4 per cent increase on the previous week but 55.9 per cent below the same week last year. Cotality said Melbourne auction numbers have been running about 55 per cent below 2025 levels since Victoria's reserve price transparency rules took effect in mid-October, excluding the previous week's long-weekend result. RET reported on the first week of auctions under the new reserve price rules, when scheduled volumes fell by about a third.

The higher clearance rate has come on a smaller pool of auctions, which matters for agents reading the result. With fewer vendors choosing the auction route under the new disclosure regime, the homes still going to auction are a narrower group, and the clearance rate is measured across fewer results than a year ago.

Sydney had the most auctions of any capital, with 709 homes taken to auction, almost identical to the previous week's 710 and 40.2 per cent below the same week last year. Its preliminary clearance rate slipped 1.5 percentage points to 52.3 per cent. Sydney's spring-to-date average is 54.3 per cent, slightly above its winter average of 52.9 per cent.

Smaller capitals remain weak

Brisbane recorded 178 auctions, the most among the smaller capitals, and a preliminary clearance rate of 31.2 per cent, up from results in the mid-20 per cent range over the previous two weeks. Adelaide took 149 homes to auction, its highest weekly volume since the final week of March, but its clearance rate eased 2.9 percentage points to 43.5 per cent. The ACT's clearance rate rose 8.3 percentage points to 47.2 per cent across 68 auctions, while Perth's 17 auctions returned 36.4 per cent.

The auction figures sit against a broader slide that Cotality's research director, Tim Lawless, set out in the group's Home Value Index on 2 November, which showed the combined capitals down 8.1 per cent in the seven months since their March peak and capital city listings at their highest level for this time of year since 2019.

"Buyers have a lot more stock to choose from, they have more leverage and there isn't the same urgency to buy as there was a year ago when home values were rising rapidly," Mr Lawless said.

Cotality's analysis of the Reserve Bank's 3 November decision, which took the cash rate to 4.85 per cent, its highest level since late 2008, puts numbers on that pressure. It estimates repayments on an average owner occupier mortgage of almost $742,000 are now about $600 a month higher than in January, and that the borrowing capacity of a median income household is about $88,000 lower than at the start of the year. Cotality expects values and turnover to keep trending lower and says rate cuts look unlikely until the second half of 2027.

The weekend figures are preliminary, and Cotality publishes final clearance rates for each week a few days later, which will show whether Melbourne's improvement holds once every result is counted.